Raptor Hard Drive, advice needed

[R.Youden]

This has really helped me thanks. I know that I cannot fit a SATA drive in my mac but I think I am going to get an internal SATA PCI card. I just think that it will be an investment cos SATA will be the way to go soon. Also it gives me the best of both worlds, ATA and SATA. Just a bit of fun. That is why i got this PowerMac over a G5 iMac so I can play with it an expand it.

 

[Blue Velvet]

This has really helped me thanks. I know that I cannot fit a SATA drive in my mac but I think I am going to get an internal SATA PCI card. I just think that it will be an investment cos SATA will be the way to go soon. Also it gives me the best of both worlds, ATA and SATA. Just a bit of fun. That is why i got this PowerMac over a G5 iMac so I can play with it an expand it.

I've read here that these cards can interfere with the Mac being in sleep mode. Can't personally confirm it but if this may be an issue, then it might be worth doing a little more research.

I briefly considered it for a day or two before ruling it out.

 

[CanadaRAM]

The 74s are 2nd Gen. Raptors and use Tagged Command Queuing while the 36s don't - much faster.

My Raid0 Raptors are very noisy, heard even over my 6 fans. When I defragment (I know - no worry for a mac user) I have to leave the room, sounds like the things gonna blow up!

I have a SATA Seagate 160 for data storage and it is whisper quiet by comparison. Personally, I would never trust storing files on a Raid0. I have XP and Apps on the Raid where I get the performance gains and store on other drives.

TCQ (whay Western Digital calls it, or Native Command Queuing as everyone else calls it) doesn't help at all with speed.

1) The overhead of TCQ can actually down access in typical desktop usage. It is primarily of benefit only in multi user server-type usage patterns in multi-disk RAID arrays.
http://www.storagereview.com/articles/200406/20040625TCQ_1.html

2) Your Mac can't address it anyways because TCQ/NCQ must be supported by the SATA controller in the machine. No Mac does, nor any SATA card I know of.

If you are experiencing faster performance on the second generation Raptors, I can guarantee it's not because of TCQ.

Thanks
Trevor
CanadaRAM.com

 

[SpaceMagic]

TCQ (whay Western Digital calls it, or Native Command Queuing as everyone else calls it) doesn't help at all with speed.

1) The overhead of TCQ can actually down access in typical desktop usage. It is primarily of benefit only in multi user server-type usage patterns in multi-disk RAID arrays.
http://www.storagereview.com/articles/200406/20040625TCQ_1.html

2) Your Mac can't address it anyways because TCQ/NCQ must be supported by the SATA controller in the machine. No Mac does, nor any SATA card I know of.

If you are experiencing faster performance on the second generation Raptors, I can guarantee it's not because of TCQ.

Thanks
Trevor
CanadaRAM.com

Tom's Hardware site said TCQ speeds things up considerably who knows.

 

[R.Youden]

I've read here that these cards can interfere with the Mac being in sleep mode. Can't personally confirm it but if this may be an issue, then it might be worth doing a little more research.

I briefly considered it for a day or two before ruling it out.

I saw one post somewhere that a user said they where great! Anyway I cant quite afford one at the moment but IF I do get a raptor in my G4 I will let you know how I get on.

I must admit that this is the first time that I have found anything not to be compatible with my G4. I suppose there always will be things but this is the first and it is really strange. I suppose the computer is over 2 years old now and is to be expected but it is still damn fast and with the RAM I have ordered will be even faster. Have you found anything else that does not work with the G4 but does with the G5's

 

[Blue Velvet]

I saw one post somewhere that a user said they where great! Anyway I cant quite afford one at the moment but IF I do get a raptor in my G4 I will let you know how I get on.

I must admit that this is the first time that I have found anything not to be compatible with my G4. I suppose there always will be things but this is the first and it is really strange. I suppose the computer is over 2 years old now and is to be expected but it is still damn fast and with the RAM I have ordered will be even faster. Have you found anything else that does not work with the G4 but does with the G5's

It's not that they aren't great but that they might interfere with Sleep mode. A couple of people here said that they did have them but that they never put their Macs into sleep anyway...

 

[Hoef]

Whining noise

I just inserted my old WD 40 GB drive in an external enclosure and suddenly remembered the whining noise it makes. Does the raptor do this as well .... very loud whining I don't mind clicking I hate whining

 

[johnj]

I just inserted my old WD 40 GB drive in an external enclosure and suddenly remembered the whining noise it makes. Does the raptor do this as well .... very loud whining I don't mind clicking I hate whining

My Raptors don't whine but they do click like crazy.

 

[Hoef]

My Raptors don't whine but they do click like crazy.

Gotta love modern day electronics

 

[SpaceMagic]

My Raptors don't whine but they do click like crazy.

I heard they're using Crickets instead of puppies now for the axel.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

I put an SIIG brand PCI SATA controller in my Dual 533 with a Hitachi 250GB 7200RPM drive, and the speed increase was very significant over my old stock 7200RPM drive. I haven't had any sleep issues or other problems at all, but my machine is a Digital Audio, not an MDD.

If the Raptor has the same performance gain over my Hitachi SATA drive as the Hitachi had over my original drive I'd say it is definitely worth it to get a Raptor. Anyway I still have one SATA channel free...

I boot my machine every day so a faster boot time would be useful to me.

 

[R.Youden]

I think that fast HD's are the way to go with the macs now. OK you have faster CPU's and more memory but you still got to get the data out! Has anyone here booted off an SATA PCI card?